Abstract:
One of the difficulties with solar power is that solar cells are notoriously inefficient. Some of that inefficiency, says Peng Jiang, is due to the fact that silicon is reflective. Jiang, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, tells PhysOrg.com that there are "disadvantages to the anti-reflective coating currently used in solar cells."

With a new process that looks to the structure of moth eyes for inspiration, Jiang hopes to address these disadvantages, improving the cost-efficiency of solar cells. "You want more of the sunlight absorbed, rather than reflected," he says. Jiang and his collaborators, Chih-Hung Sun at the University of Florida, and Bin Jiang at Portland State University, share the results of their work in Applied Physics Letters: "Broadband moth-eye antireflection coatings on silicon."